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More About the Author

James Grant, financial journalist and historian, is the founder and editor of Grant's Interest Rate Observer, a twice-monthly journal of the investment markets. His new book, The Forgotten Depression, 1921: the Crash that Cured Itself, a history of America's last governmentally unmedicated business-cycle downturn, won the 2015 Hayek Prize of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

He is, in addition, the author of a pair of political biographies: John Adams: Party of One, a life of the second president of the United States (Farrar, Straus, 2005) and Mr. Speaker! The Life and Times of Thomas B. Reed, the Man Who Broke the Filibuster (Simon & Schuster, 2011).

Mr. Grant's television appearances include "60 Minutes," "The Charlie Rose Show," "CBS Evening News," and a 10-year stint on "Wall Street Week". His journalism has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal and Foreign Affair. He contributed an essay to the Sixth Edition of Graham and Dodd's Security Analysis (McGraw-Hill, 2009).

Mr. Grant, a former Navy gunner's mate, is a Phi Beta Kappa alumnus of Indiana University. He earned a master's degree in international relations from Columbia University and began his career in journalism in 1972, at the Baltimore Sun. He joined the staff of Barron's in 1975 where he originated the "Current Yield" column. He is a trustee of the New York Historical Society. He and his wife, Patricia Kavanagh M.D., live in Brooklyn. They are the parents of four grown children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This timeless classic (first printed 1934) transcends business cycles, industry disruptions and investment fads. One example in the context of the recent real estate led market collapse is Ben Graham's views on Misleading Character of Appraisals (Ch 10, Specific Standards for Bond Investment, p 185):

During the great and disastrous development of the real estate mortgage - bond business between 1923 and 1929, the only datum customarily presented to support the usual bond offering - aside from an estimate of future earnings - was a state of the appraised value of the property, which almost invariably amounted to some 66' % in excess of the mortgage issue. If these appraisals had corresponded to the market values which experienced buyers of or lenders on real estate would place upon the properties, they would have been of real utility in the selection of sound real estate bonds. But unfortunately they were purely artificial valuations, to which the appraisers were willing to attach their names for a fee, and whose only function was to deceive the investor as to the protection which he was receiving.

...This whole scheme of real estate financing was honeycombed with the most glaring weaknesses, and it is sad commentary on the lack of principle, penetration, and ordinary common sense on the part of all parties concerned that it was permitted to reach such gigantic proportions before the inevitable collapse.

It outlines the differences between investing and speculating.Much time is devoted to the concept of "margin of safety" when purchasing securities.

If only more people took the ideas in this book more seriously, perhaps we could avoid the insane and unsubstantiated market bubbles that have come before and that we will undoubtedly see again.

Graham is considered to be the mentor of Warren Buffet; that should be reason enough for any serious investor not to just have this book in their library, but to seriously study the ideas and give it the full consideration it is due.

Every serious value investor has to read this book. If you are a beginning investor, this book is probably not the best place to start, but sooner or later, every investor should have a copy. Some of the information is a little outdated because a lot has changed since 1934, but still, good investing is good investing. If Warren Buffett learned from Benjamin Graham, we should all find something valuable in this book.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Financial market exists since xx century. Security Analysis probably is the first (the only?) fundamental book written. Stands like Platon in philosophy or Dante in literature. Don't play with money if you haven't read!